


Little Talks

by Aelwyn



Series: Vignettes of Rose and the Doctor [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Pregnancy, This is basically fluff crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 08:23:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21033209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelwyn/pseuds/Aelwyn
Summary: Whilst avoiding Jackie Tyler, the Ninth Doctor gets a glimpse of his future.





	Little Talks

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE BBC, DOCTOR WHO, AND ANY OTHER AFFILIATES.

It was just another typical visit to Jackie’s wherein Rose took her laundry back to her mum’s and the Doctor went and did something on his own. Jack was off on an x-rated planet for a few days and he had a rare moment of alone time. On this particular occasion he jumped a few years into the future because his scans told him the Rift in Cardiff was particularly full of good energy for the TARDIS, and he sat and waited. 

After a few hours he got bored and went on a wander through Cardiff, noting with some pleasure that it was some sort of festival or whatnot and that the turnout at the Riverside Farmer’s Market was even better than usual. He picked his way through produce and inspected baked goods, and that was when he ran into her. 

...Or when she ran into him. 

Needless to say it was a shock to see Rose sprawled on the ground when he turned to give the person a piece of his mind.

She was obviously a year or two older (correlating with the time they were in), and her hair was cut shoulder-length. It looked more natural and the Doctor wondered idly if he’d finally gotten the good sense to take her somewhere where they could do a permanent pigment dye change for her. Her gold-flecked brown eyes sparkled with mischief and shocked surprise, but her mouth was set into one of her tongue-touched grins. Her makeup was less heavy; complimentary rather than expressive. 

But what got his attention and held it was the quite noticeable shape and size of her abdomen. 

“Heya Doctor,” she chirped, grinning up at him from the pavement. He gaped. 

“...Rose!?” 

“Help me up?” She asked, then gestured toward her stomach. “Kinda hard right now without help.”

“...Right, right! Sorry.” Rose accepted his hand and brushed herself off impatiently once she’d gotten back on her feet, pausing to glance at him in amusement.

“You’re staring.”

“And you’re pregnant.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” 

Despite himself, the Doctor rolled his eyes as he huffed and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. Rose waggled her eyebrows and his huff turned into a half-hearted chuckle. None of this changed the shocked, wide blue eyes that seemed fixed to move between exactly two things: Rose’s baby bump and Rose’s face. Her expression softened sympathetically as she took his hand and linked their fingers together, making the perfect fit just like they always did. 

“Hey, nothing’s changed Doctor. Well, nothing for the worse, anyway.”

“How can you possibly say that?” He grumbled, letting her lightly drag him down the market path without protest. “You and Rickey the Idiot have got a kid on the way, you’re not traveling with me anymore, and-“

“There!” 

“Hold that thought,” Rose muttered as the shout caused several heads to turn. Two reptilian bipedal aliens with gleaming blue scales and long, dextrous tails wielding disrupters slowly began advancing toward them. The Doctor opened his mouth to ask but never got the chance, because suddenly Rose was running and he was too impressed by her speed and agility despite her condition to formulate a proper sentence. 

They finally came to a stop in a dingy alley once they were sure they’d lost their pursuers and Rose leaned against the nearest wall, wheezing as she rubbed her stomach in a soothing circular motion. 

“Why were they after you?” The Doctor asked, frowning as he leaned against the wall opposite hers and crossed his arms over his chest. “I can only assume that’s what was goin’ on, yeah? ‘Cause I’ve never seen them before so they definitely weren’t after _me_.”

“Not this you, anyway,” Rose retorted in between pants. “If this were your next incarnation they’d have been after you. Lucky, they don’t know anything about your specific brand of self-preservation. Anyway, they were after me because a Gallifreyan fetus is, apparently, worth a lot of money on the black market.” 

The Doctor, who had been about to ask about a hundred questions pertaining to her casual reference to Regeneration and apparent later versions of him, felt all of them scatter to the four winds of creation as it seemed like the last threads of his sanity frayed and snapped. He simply went back to alternating from staring between her face and her baby bump. 

“What?” He asked numbly. Millions of languages floating around in his head and it all boiled down to ‘what.’ Poetic. Rose smiled and nodded, taking his hand and resting it on her abdomen. The Doctor started slightly when the pressure of his palm was immediately met with a flurry of kicks and punches and he gave up trying to piece two coherent thoughts together to form an opinion on anything. “Gallifreyan?”

“Time Tot, cooking away,” Rose clarified simply with a wide knowing grin. 

“It- mine?” 

“Well, who else’s would it be?” 

“Oh.” He looked back up at her face to see a perfectly balanced mixture of exasperation and amusement. “But, but we’re not, you’re dating Mickey, and never even looked at me twice when Jack came on board...”

“When is it for you?” Rose asked, understanding suddenly flitting across her features. The Doctor shrugged. 

“Dunno.”

“Well, when did we get Jack?” 

“You make him sound like a house cat.” 

“And you’re saying he isn’t?” 

“If he is can we talk about getting him neutered?” 

“Doctor!” 

“Been only two weeks, why? What difference does that make?” He finally answered genuinely, the tiny banter helping him to relax. It was familiar, it was safe, and he silently praised Rose’s brilliance in recognizing that he needed a bit of that at the moment. 

“All the difference in the world,” she sighed happily. At his raised eyebrow she elaborated. “Jack keeps asking to be let off at places neither of us wants to go because I asked him to. I kinda... want some alone time with you, but things keep getting mucked up. He’s a great wingman, though. Top notch, ten of ten would hire again. Anyway, Mickey and I are over even if it’s not official yet. I’ve been pining after you for ages, didn’t realize that’s what I was doing until you took me to see my dad. And I’m hoping- well, praying actually, I’m really desperate for anything to work right now- that you feel the same way. I think you do, fancy you do, but I’m not sure. But two weeks?”

Rose flashed a tongue-touched grin at him. 

“Two weeks is when we managed to get to Woman Wept. Beautiful, and Jack cited not knowing how to ice skate as an excuse so it was just us, and out of nowhere you just decide to kiss me. Never looked back. I’m guessin’ that, even after you forget all this to preserve timelines, you remember just enough to take the plunge.”

“Sounds about right,” the Doctor rumbled, touched and hopeful at this snapshot of his future. He then frowned. “But what about the tyke?” He asked, gesturing to her belly with his free hand. The other one was still splayed across the ballooning surface. “You’re...” 

“Huge?” Rose suggested playfully. She snickered when the Doctor blushed bright red. 

“...Ah. Matter of fact, yeah. I was just gonna be more diplomatic and say ‘pretty far along,’ but your way works too.” 

“Still got a few months to go yet, but I’m gettin’ there.”

“That doesn’t explain the how,” he pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “Gallifreyan pregnancy is-“ 

“Extremely rare after prolonged use of the Looms all but killed your natural abilities to procreate, I know,” Rose interrupted with an eye roll. “Long story short it helps when your Bond Mate absorbs the Time Vortex to save your life and accidentally makes herself into a Proto-Gallifreyan in the process. Trust me, I got the speech non-stop until the scan confirmed exactly what I had been saying for the prior two weeks leading up to said scan.” 

“Proto- Time Vort- Rose, what have you been _doing_ with future me!?” He squeaked. 

“Nah mate, that was all you.”

“It- I- _what!?” _

“Not the baby, that was future you,” she hastened to amend at the expression on his face. “And the marriage bond. But the whole time vortex species change thing was what made you regenerate.”

“I need to sit down,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Well I don’t want to worry you-“

“Doing a bang-up job there, Rose.” She smacked him lightly upside the back of the head.

“-But those Teroooovans are still after me. So maybe hurry up with the whole processing your ninth-life crisis over there,” Rose finished pointedly, raising an eyebrow. The Doctor groaned and nodded. 

“Come on,” he sighed. “I’ll get you back to my TARDIS where you’re safe and then I’ll deal with your would-be kidnappers.” She smiled, wrapping her hands around his arm as she leaned against him when they walked back out into the busy street.

“Aww. My hero.”

“Oi!” 

“Baby thanks you.” He felt his face heat and swallowed. 

“Rose...”

“Hm?”

“Do we, do you, you know, know the baby’s gender?” 

“Wanted to be surprised. Whole pregnancy’s been a bit of a shock, really. Neither of us thought it was possible and then it was and... yeah. Kinda in keeping with the theme, not knowing what we’re havin’ until he or she is here.” She fixed him with a speculative look. “Why, do you want to know?”

“Kinda,” the Doctor murmured in a small voice. Rose nodded sagely, smirking. 

“Knew future you was lying about not wanting to know, thinking that’s what I wanted too,” she laughed. “You can be such a dunce sometimes, y’know that?” 

“...It has been mentioned from time to time, yeah,” he retorted cheekily with his first true smile of the entire meeting. 

…/*\…

“So, this is really our future,” the Doctor murmured. 

“Yep!” His future self said brightly. They were both across the Plass, watching Mickey and Jack needle each other while Rose laughed at the pair of them. Their newest companion Donna was looking confused but interested, and Martha was making absolutely sure she was included in the conversation with the rest of her friends. Jack’s team was off busy negotiating with the Shadow Proclamation to take the two Teroooovans into custody. 

“In all my lives I never dared hope...” he trailed off, his future self humming in understanding. “Especially during the Time War. Especially then. And then, after, when we were the only one...”

“I can feel the baby now, their telepathy has developed just enough I can get some basic emotions,” pinstripes murmured as he closed his eyes and smiled. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the blissful expression that flitted across his face and noted when Rose suddenly looked straight at them and smiled. He felt he should be envious of this, of what his future self had, but he just didn’t have it in him. He was happy, and one day that happiness would be his too. He just had to be patient. 

He had managed to get Rose to the TARDIS before the Teroooovans had caught her, and then had accidentally let them know that he was a Time Lord. They’d chased him everywhere until the timely intervention of his future self coming in with the Torchwood cavalry, and then there was the problem of Jack being a fixed point but he didn’t want to bother with that at the moment. 

“Rose wants to know the gender of the baby,” he said quietly. His future self swung are to stare at him with wide brown eyes. 

“She said she didn’t though?” He murmured, confused. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

“No, she was asking what you wanted, and you assumed that it was a leading question,” he chided. “She wants to know just as much as you do.” 

“Right... good, good.” They trailed off into silence for a good few minutes. “She fell for you first, you know. When you became me... it was a bit of a rocky start. I didn’t explain it well- wellll, we never really do, do we? But anyway, she missed you. Took her a little while to see that we were the same person, but when she did...” he tugged on an ear. “I think she understands the concept of regeneration better than we do, sometimes,” he murmured. 

“What do you mean?” The Doctor asked. His future self shrugged. 

“Ran into our fifth incarnation after some repairs went wonky. Thought I’d have to explain some things but Rose just jumped right in, figured everything out on her own. And she literally sees no difference between any of us internally aside from experience due to age. Externally, obviously, can’t argue things have changed there, but inside? One and the same. And I think she gets that better than we do, though for the lives of me I can’t fathom why.”

“Well, she always was our special girl,” the Doctor offered with a wry smile. His future self nodded, grinning, as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

“But...?”

“I still can’t believe she’s giving us a kid,” he admitted. “When we left Gallifrey I never thought I’d be a dad again. We were rubbish at it the first time. Only Rassilon knows why you aren’t a basket case right now, panicking over all that. We’re not even together yet from my perspective and I’m already panicking _for_ you.”

“...your use of personal and plural was kinda...” 

“It got away from me a bit, yeah. What’s your excuse?”

“I... was just trying to follow the conversation?” 

“...Fair enough.” 

“You are so weird,” Rose muttered as she wandered over. 

“Which one?” His future self asked cheekily, rolling about on the balls of his feet.

“Yes,” she retorted, flashing a tongue in teeth grin. 

“That’s not how you play the game,” the Doctor protested good-naturedly. 

“In answer to your earlier question, I’m coping because Rose is here,” his future self explained. Rose hummed in approval and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the mouth. 

“You’ll do fine, Doctor.” She smiled, walking over to the Doctor as his future self beamed at her like she’d hung the stars for them, and kissed him on the mouth. “Just fine.” 

**Author's Note:**

> So, you guys may have noticed that this is short. It’s also poorly planned and cutesy, more about character interaction than any real plot. This is because I am having a very rough week; six or seven things happened all at once and I needed to write something light-hearted, funny, and adorable. So, here’s some fluffy interaction between Rose and her Doctors. 
> 
> Others of you have probably noticed that everything lately has been Oneshots. Well, this is because I have been emotionally exhausted. I have multi-chapter stories lined up and will begin writing one soon (it will probably be the next in this series), so don’t give up on me yet!
> 
> The song for this fic is “Here With Me” by Marshmello, CHVRCHES. Link to the YouTube video below:  
https://youtu.be/jJHFirGQqvk


End file.
